Oversized trailer in Boccuzzi Park to be replaced

Updated 4:08 pm, Monday, June 20, 2016

Three trailers, one of which is 27 feet oversized, sit in Boccuzzi Park on Monday, June 20, 2016. The largest of the three trailers will be removed and replaced with a more appropriately sized trailer.

Three trailers, one of which is 27 feet oversized, sit in Boccuzzi Park on Monday, June 20, 2016. The largest of the three trailers will be removed and replaced with a more appropriately sized trailer.

Three trailers, one of which is 27 feet oversized, sit in Boccuzzi Park on Monday, June 20, 2016. The largest of the three trailers will be removed and replaced with a more appropriately sized trailer.

Three trailers, one of which is 27 feet oversized, sit in Boccuzzi Park on Monday, June 20, 2016. The largest of the three trailers will be removed and replaced with a more appropriately sized trailer.

The cluster of trailers in the park has been hotly contested by Gerbert and his Waterside neighbors for years. The two original trailers, which were meant to be temporary, were placed in the park as offices for the Young Mariners Foundation more than a decade ago.

The now-defunct foundation’s plans for the sailing school at Boccuzzi Park, formerly known as Southfield Park, were plagued by funding issues for years, and a plan for a permanent building never came to fruition.

SoundWaters took over the site when it merged with the mariners group in January, promising to make “significant improvements” to the deteriorating facilities.

“We have already started making significant improvements to the area around the trailers and we’ve had good feedback from neighbors on that,” said Michael Bagley, director of marine operations at SoundWaters. “We are proud of the improvements we have made in just a few weeks.”

SoundWaters is not being held responsible for the oversized trailer, as it was provided by the city, however, Murray believes the mistake was made by SoundWaters and not the city.

“The city wouldn’t have brought in a trailer of the wrong size ... we want to play by the rules” he said. “SoundWaters either put down the wrong dimensions for the trailer or mis-measured before it went in.”

Neither Laurie Albano, the city’s superintendent of recreation, nor Ernie Orgera, city operations director, were immediately available to comment on the choice of the trailer.

Bagley said he was not aware that the city would install such a large trailer.

“We are aware there is an issue with the new trailer, but we were just as surprised as anyone when the trailer arrived and it was so large,” he said.

Gerbert alerted the city to the oversized trailer at a Parks and Recreation Commission public hearing last Wednesday.

The organization still has approval from the commission to install a third trailer that is within the approved size limit. Some of the short-term fixes include some landscaping, a new chain link fence around the front of the trailers and a privacy fence along neighboring property lines.

But that hasn’t placated some neighbors, who just want to see the trailers gone.

“Yeah, it looks absolutely beautiful from their side, but they’re not in my backyard ... it looks like there’s a circus in my backyard,” Gerbert said.

Over the long term, SoundWaters will develop a detailed site plan in compliance with a forthcoming Master Plan for the park. This final site plan for the sailing school would include construction of a permanent structure and removal of the trailers, Bagley said.

Gerbert, jaded by seven years of opposing the trailers overlooking his property, isn’t convinced that SoundWaters or the city will deliver on that promise.

“What they’re doing is promising a rose garden,” he said. “And it’s not going to be a rose garden.”